Is the age of bricks and mortar universities over?
As someone who has spent the last decade working at a university, even just typing that question caused me wince a little.
It’s a challenging question. But with so much knowledge and training available online, the relevance of bricks and mortar universities in higher education is increasingly coming into question. Why should people take out a major loan, or put themselves through exam stress when so much information is available from the comfort of your sofa via You Tube tutorials?
Part of the answer is that universities have long been sites of human connection and cultural exchange – full of politics, ideas and knowledge exchange. And my job is to understand how students connect and become part of that community of learning. Because research tells us that students who feel a sense of belonging to communities at university perform better academically and experience an increased sense of self-worth and wellbeing. And they are less likely to drop out.
In other words, they thrive.
And the reality is that to keep pace with demand, we need to understand this as much in the online space as we do for a physical campus.
Millions and millions of students around the world are enrolled in tertiary education programs, living on campus, commuting from far and wide or engaging online to come together to develop knowledge and skills. How students access education is changing but they still need to connect with community to do well.
So perhaps a better question is how can we do university community better?
Luckily, I know the perfect person to speak to about this – my colleague at UNSW Sydney, Dr David Kellerman. Incredibly, 100 per cent of David’s engineering students report that they feel they belong to a learning community.
So naturally I wanted to find out David’s secrets. And what David says in our podcast conversation is so important . Do give it a listen here: Apple Podcasts and Spotify
DAVID: “What is the value of coming to a university? It is to be part of a community. It is to have a shared experience, whether you're on campus or on the internet, it doesn't matter. You can still have a shared experience. And it's to be inspired to do something. So, you know, that's actually arguably a much bigger responsibility than what it used to be, which is to motivate and inspire our students and build communities.”
So, how are David and his team meeting that responsibility to motivate, inspire and build communities? Let’s talk about three things we can all apply.
First, passion. David LOVES his subject.
““I think engineering is amazing. I want to tell my students, and I do, imagine this, you all in this room, you own the future. You are engineers, you get to design and build everything that’s next new airplane, new car, new phone, new technology, new anything that’s your discipline.””
How could you not be inspired hearing that?! And, as you’d expect, there’s substantial research to back it up. Organisational performance expert Richard Chang tells us that passion is what inspires us to work harder, and the best part of this is that when we are passionate, we don’t even see what we are doing as work.
A 2015 study even found teachers’ “enthusiasm” and passion to be positively related to students’ motivation. Higher education researcher Dr Laurie Schreiner, in her work on student thriving, advises educators to communicate their own passion about a subject and tap into student passion and interests as a means to boost student engagement. Something David is definitely doing.
Second, creativity and playing to your strengths.
David and I talked about the benefits to community when we get creative and make use of resources and technologies around us. In David’s case, he harnessed the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and designed a bot that essentially helps people to feel part of community. While not everyone has the necessary mastery of algorithms, if you can’t code or engineer a bot from the ground up, you can still take stock of existing resources and get creative. David advocates using non specialist software, so it is easily accessible, like Microsoft Office 365.
What is so interesting about David’s story is that even in a resource-rich environment, like a university, there are still barriers to finding community. While the resources were always there, David connected the dots in an innovative way to bring students and teachers together. When we get creative with available resources, we are well on our way to improving and strengthening our communities.
Third, design with human beings in mind.
David has used technology to redesign the student experience and, ultimately, increase students’ sense of community. A humanistic approach, coupled with technology that responds to the unique needs of different students, allows David’s bot to boost participation and connection.
We may worry about robots taking our jobs and destroying the planet (you could say we humans are doing a good enough job of that already!) but humanistic artificial intelligence has the potential to enhance, not replace, our participation in the community.
AI specialist Frank Chen argues that in combining humanity AI capabilities will allow humans to focus on what humans do best – connecting and creating. When machines can take care of mundane and routine tasks humans have more time, energy and attention for the kind of thinking that machines aren’t that good at – think empathy and creativity. The best part is, research has shown that we (robots and humans) are better together. A Harvard Medical School study of human versus AI performance in cancer diagnosis found that the most accurate diagnoses came from humans working in partnership with algorithms.
We all need to evolve in order to stay relevant to the communities we serve – and that’s relevant for all of us, whether we’re in business, community development and education.
David’s work is an excellent example of how we can augment bricks and mortar, or face to face interaction, with bots and technology, in a way that is truly engaging. If we examine how we can do the same in all our classrooms and workplaces, then we truly are on the brink of an exciting future.
Let’s recap on the how you can motivate, inspire and build your community:
1. Don’t keep your passion to yourself - share with others what motivates you and give them the tools to pass this passion on.
2. Get creative and play to your strengths - resources are hard to come by but sometimes we can overlook the ones we already have so join the dots and get creative.
3. Don’t be scared of the robots - think about how technology can reduce barriers to participation and make for a more connected human community
Thanks so much to David for your time, your energy and your passion for teaching.
This is all information I’m using on a daily basis to help build the communities within UNSW, because #belonging is better.
Listen to this and other episodes on Apple Podcasts , Spotify
